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May 18, 2009Aeros’ Weglarz Nabs Player of the Week Honor
May 18, 2009
As these playoffs have unfolded and with all the waiting that the Cavs have forced us to endure, it has been common to discuss “Who would you rather play?” type scenarios. Now that the matchup is here, I am sure there will be a lot of conversation about whether this is the best scenario or not. Even before the game was final yesterday, I had already come to the conclusion that it just doesn’t matter. Whether it was the Celtics or the Magic really didn’t matter to me.
First of all, this isn’t me being brash and over-confident. I recognize the threats that both of these teams provide. Certainly the landscape of the playoffs has been altered drastically because Kevin Garnett’s contorted face was forced to silly-putty its way into nefarious scowls on the sidelines in a suit and tie. And of course on the Magic side there is the loss of Jameer Nelson. Although he has been pretty adequately replaced by Rafer Alston. Still, when I think about this year’s Cavs team, it just doesn’t matter.
When the Cavs are playing to their fullest potential they will beat either the Magic or the Celtics in this year’s incarnations. Again, this isn’t a guarantee of victory. It is a steely calm just knowing that the Cavs have a better than average shot. It is the level of calmness that I didn’t have last year when the Cavs lost to the Celtics. You just knew that that Celtics team had an advantage over everyone they played whenever they played to their fullest potential. As the Hawks and Cavaliers proved by taking the Celtics to 7 games each, the Celtics of last year didn’t always play to their fullest potential. If the Celtics had lost, they would have only had themselves to blame.
That is how I feel about this year’s Cavs team, although against my traditional Clevelander sensibilities. Like last year’s Boston team, this Cavs team has proven themselves capable. They are ready for any challenge that comes their way. Now the Magic and the Cavs both have all their chips out in the middle of the table. If the Cavs lose, they will only have themselves to blame. And while a Cavs loss would be wildly disappointing, I do have some sense of calm as I sit here today. This team with LeBron, Mo, Delonte, Z and Andy has made it possible to believe. Certainly not to assume a victory, but definitely to believe. They have made it possible to not be scared. While it doesn’t guarantee the Cavs will take this city all the way to glory, it is certainly a new and wonderful feeling to just be confident.
23 Comments
Confident that Turkoglu’s mug will be smack in the center of the header image with fat “7” on top of it?
It doesn’t surprise me to see ESPN & TNT jumping on the Orlando bandwagon. Hopefully the Cavs take notice and add some more fuel to the fire.
Everyone picking Orlando is humorous to me… hell after game five against Boston everyone was done with the Magic. Series ova.
It’s just the fickle nature of the joke that is the national media.
Craig, great post. It’s normal as a Cleveland fan to start getting those feelings like, uh oh, I don’t like this match up with Orlando. Guess what, this is not a typical Cleveland team.
Not only are they the best team record wise, THEY HAVE THE BEST PLAYER ON THE COURT AT ALL TIMES IN NO. 23. With the first two games at home, the Magic need to shoot 70 percent from 3-point range to have a shot. Against this Cavs defense, with nine days to prepare, it’s not going to happen.
@ Lyon – I’m not sure ESPN is exactly on the Magic “bandwagon”. Zero out of their 10 “experts” who have picked the series picked the Magic: http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2009/matchup/_/teams/magic-cavaliers
The only debate how many games the Cavs would need to win it:
5 – 4 experts
6 – 5 experts
7 – 1 experts
When 9 out of 10 have the Cavs taking care of business without the need for a game 7, I still think there’s a sufficient amount of respect for the Cavs.
I can’t wait until Wednesday. It has been WAY too long.
comforting words Craig, thank you
“comforting words Craig, thank you”
Craig. The cyber Snuggie.
TNT has the entire Eastern Conference Finals. It’s in their best interest to get as many viewers as possible. Telling potential viewers that the underdog has no shot, doesn’t help their cause. Kenny Smith and Chris Webber could barely contain themselves when Barkley picked Orlando. They know the truth. “We were in the building when he went off for 45! We were in the building! -K. Smith
It’s easy to watch Orlando beat up on Boston in Boston and 20 minutes later state that they’re better than the Cavs. Orlando is fresh in their minds. So they forget that Orlando has already lost twice at home this playoff season, once to Philadelphia?! They forget that the Cavs are 8-0 with eight double digit victories.
They forget.
I do think Orlando has the potential to win a couple of games at home. But, as we saw in the Celtics series, they don’t have anyone with the balls to step up at the end of the game and take the big shot. Especially Howard. If he wants the ball int he 4th quarter – he needs to make it happen.
The Cavs will win every close game in this series. LeBron will simply take over at the end of games in a way that the Magic can’t match.
In other news, I’m liking that the next two series are going to have LeBron going up against a legitimate superstar. Howard in this series and either Kobe or Carmelo in the finals. Just extra motivation for LBJ
I don’t think Alston has truly stepped up admirably for Jameer Nelson. After game five, a lot of TV announcers were ripping into the Magic for relying upon Hedo Turkoglu to distribute the ball late in games. Hedo was great in game seven with 12 assists and everyone forgot about the whole incident, but it will be intriguing to see how the Cavs guard him when you consider the fact Alston does not control the ball that often as the point guard.
I hope Delonte reads Bill Simmons:
EVERYONE KNOWS HEDO WILL FAKE THE DRIVE FOR A PULL-UP THREE.
@ Seaward – considering LeBron will likely be guarding Hedo most of the time, I hope LeBron realizes that too.
@AMC
I kind of hope it’s a mixture of the two, actually. Though I hope it’s 23 in crunch time: trying to shoot a three over LeBron in the last minute may prove most unwise.
#3 & #8
You guys nailed it. Who on Orlando scares you at the end of a close game? How about no one.
Who are you worried about on the Cavs? Oh yeah, the best player in the league.
Re Charles Barkley, his current persona is the “outrageous but loveable contrarian.” Much of the crap that pours out of his mouth was vetted in pre-telecast production meetings to fit his role as an entertaining counterpoint to K. Smith’s real basketball analysis. Take it with a grain of salt. Be prepared for more dissing of the city. But it’s still better than ABC, when we’ll (hopefully) have to listen to Jeff van Gundy screeching his inane unfunnies in the middle of the game
I just wish i could listen to AC do the games, I’m tried of the national announcers. Maybe if I could just get a hold of AC we could all go to a bar and have him call the game for us….ahhh it’s nice to have dreams….
THROWIN THE HAMMA DOWN!!!!!!
Right on Mosox! It seems like eons ago when we were inundated with “…deep in the Q” and “get that weak stuff outta here.” I do miss the homer voice!
Honestly, I don’t see the AC craze. I think catch phrases are overrated and they’re all AC ever uses. Plus he has about 30 of them.
Joe Tait has ONE catchphrase. Tom Hamilton has ONE catchphrase. Jimmy D doesn’t really have any. Nev Chandler never had one. See what I’m getting at here?
I would take any announcer over the ESPN guys. I like Hubie Brown though. TNT has the great Marv Albert and Fratello at least.
I think LBJ will cover Hedo most of the time.
he might be a bit tall for Delonte.
the cavs are gonna get van gundy’d.
and that’s a good thing.
Didn’t that girl at the peep show in Boondock Saints get Van Gundy’ed?
I have a ticket question: did anybody here try to get tickets at noon today with the Gold password on Ticketmaster and find more than single tickets available? I was clicking away right at noon and was sad to find no available tickets in groups of two or more. I also don’t recall it being this difficult for the average Joe to get playoff tickets in the previous two seasons. Do you pretty much need to fork over the money for some sort of season tickets package next year in order to have a remote chance at getting sets of tickets for the playoffs this year?